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Eldery German woman fined for Holocaust denial

BERLIN (JTA) — An 81-year-old German woman was convicted of Holocaust denial and fined.

The woman, identified as Ursula H., on Wednesday was given a suspended sentence of six months and fined nearly $1,400 by a Munich judge.

Ursula, the former president of a banned right-wing extremist group, admitted to distributing a text among schoolchildren that she had written in which she denied the Holocaust. Her 91-year-old co-defendant had allowed his name to be used on the pamphlet and was fined more than $800, the German news agency DPA reported.

In Germany, it is illegal to openly deny the Holocaust or disseminate Nazi propaganda. A jail sentence of up to five years is possible.

Judge Norbert Riedmann said he doubted that Ursula H. would change her views and that she had to be punished for expressing them.

Some right-wing groups have tested the denial ban by openly doubting the numbers of Jews murdered, or by stating that German civilians suffered as much as victims of the Holocaust.

Several Holocaust deniers in recent years have been put on trial in Germany and Austria and served jail time.